DIY Media 2010: Video and Gaming Culture (Part Two)
/This is the fifth in an ongoing series of curated selections of DIY Video prepared in relation to the screening of DIY Video 2010 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and organized by Mimi Ito, Steve Anderson, and the good folks at the Institute for Multimedia Literacy. The following selection of videos was curated by Matteo Bittanti, a Social Science Research Associate at Stanford Humanities Lab.
LittleBigRevenge
Seakitten Collective (Belgium)
2009
genre: the video uses a blend of real footage and in-game footage
keywords: LittleBigPlanet, fandom, comedy
LittleBigRevenge uses a blend of real footage and in-game footage of Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet in a creative and engaging way The video, starring the game avatars Sackboy and Sackgirl, asks the viewers "what would happen if a diplomatic mistake causes [sackboys] to take revenge on humanity? A Belgian couple finds out right in their living room..."
"MTBig Planet"
DanteNeverDies (Spain)
2009
genre: machinima music video
keywords: Music video, Montage, parody
An irresistible spoof of famous dance music videos created with Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet. PlayList: Flatbeat - Mr Oizo; Sing it Back - Moloko; Satisfaction - Benny Bennasi; Destination Calabria - Alex Gaudino; Right Here Right Now - FatboySlim; Who's Your Daddy - Benny Bennassi; Starlight - Supermen Lovers; DANCE - Justice; My Boobs are Ok - Lene Alexandre; Hey Boy; Hey Girl - The Chemical Brothers; Call on me - Eric Prydz; Invaders Must Die - The Prodigy; One More Time - Daft Punk.
"LittleDaftPunk"
DanteNeverDies (Spain)
2009
genre: machinima music video
keywords: Music video, Montage, parody
A visual medley of Draft Punk's most celebrated songs recreated with Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet by DanteNeverDies.
"I'm On a Boat"
Matthew Gallant (Canada)
2009
genre: machinima music video
keywords: Machinima Music Video, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Nintendo), Saturday Night Live
Matthew Gallant mixes Saturday Night Live with Zelda and creates the (explicit) Wind Waker version of I'm On a Boat. In his own words: "Like all stupid ideas, it began on the Internet"
"Half-Life2: All sounds replaced with my voice"
-Trase- aKa Patcher aKa Tr45e (Ukraine)
2009
genre: Gameplay footage
keywords: BHuman beat Box, Mod,
The author replaced 1327 sound files with his voice ("I did not edit any of them, its fresh from the microphone"). The result is incredibly funny and started a new meme on the internt. (He left untouched: "Ambient noises like wind; some zombie voices; character voices (it would sound dumb); maybe i missed some minor physics like a trap door hidden somewhere in ravenholm and no one ever opens it").
"Infinite Mario AI -Long Level"
Robin Baumgarten (United Kingdom)
2009
genre: Gameplay footage, speedrun
keywords: speedrun, skill, AI, music
This incredible video won the Super Mario Competition in September 2009 which invited players to submit their game performances. Robin Baumgarten, a PhD student at Imperial College, London, produced an enhanced run which pulls off a major coup halfway through when it walljumps out of a pit. In his own words: In this version of Mario, when you're jumping while sliding on a wall, you jump backwards and upwards away from it").
"Project Blackjack: Trials HD - Stunt Video"
BLKJ Son (United States)
2009
genre: Gameplay footage with Music (Bonnie Tayler's "I Need a Hero")
keywords: Skill, Trials HD, montage
Videos stunts performed in Trials HD, a motorbike game available on Xbox Live arcade. The author - BLKJ Son - presumably filmed his television screen and edited the video adding a rock soundtrack (the screams and wows from the player can be heard as well). BLKJ Son's description: " Trials HD is the sickest game ever. You know how we get down ... BLKJ Son". I law the "raw footage" nature of this video.
"What A Wonderful L4D"
James McVinnie (originally from the UK, living in Canada)
2009
genre Edited gameplay Footage with soundtrack
keywords: Gameplay, montage, music
This video creates a powerful cognitive dissonance by juxtaposing scenes from the ultra-violent horror game Left 4 Dead (Valve) and Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World". The effect is similar to Microsoft's famous TV ad for "Gears of Wars" featuring Gary Jule's "Mad World".
In his own words: "I play Left 4 Dead waaaay too much. It deserves a vid. Please ignore the lag spikes and such, i rushed this out over 2 days and didn't really have time to fix up all the bugs. The reason Louis doesnt make much of an appearance is the fact that i'm always Louis, so he was doing all the camera work."
What a Wonderful Left 4 Dead (Machinima) from James McVinnie on Vimeo.
"The Adventures of Ledo and iX"
2009
genre Game-Inspired Animation
keywords: Homage, 16-bit aesthetics, lo-fi
The Adventures of Ledo & Ix online is a low-fi (but conceptually rich) five minute faux-16-bit short by Emily 'Kid Can Drive' Carmichael.
In His Own Words: "In many ways, Ledo and Ix are just like us. Sleeping under the stars makes them philosophical. Sometimes they wonder if they should have chosen different careers. They avoid dens of monsters when possible. But in one crucial way, they're different--they're fantasy adventurers in an extremely small-scale video game epic. What exactly do video game characters do when we're not around? What if they chat and bicker like we do, wonder and dream like we do, feel boredom and dread like we do, despite being 48 pixels tall? A sort of eight-bit tribute to Waiting for Godot, The Adventures of Ledo and Ix uses the visual vocabulary of retro video games to explore the human fear of both the unknown and the known."
"Creepy Mario 64"
2009
genre Manipulated Game Footage of Super Mario 64 (Nintendo)
keywords: Gameplay Footage
A manipulated version of Super Mario 64 that evokes David Lynch's cinematic nightmares.
Matteo Bittanti is an Adjunct Professor in the Visual Studies Program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and Oakland. He writes about technology, film, games, and popular culture for various publications (WIRED, Rolling Stone, LINK, Duellanti). His online projects include GameScenes, a blog about game-based art.
